WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:29.600 This is a U.S. Army helicopter flight simulator at NASA's Ames Research Center in California. 00:29.600 --> 00:33.920 When the scientists here needed a computer that could handle the fast graphics and multitasking 00:33.920 --> 00:38.320 required by a simulator, they didn't go out and buy an expensive mini computer system. 00:38.320 --> 00:42.160 They bought a Commodore Amiga, in fact, 15 of them. 00:42.160 --> 00:47.320 Today we take a look at the underrated and too often ignored Amiga on this edition of 00:47.320 --> 01:10.240 the Computer Chronicles. 01:10.240 --> 01:16.360 The Computer Chronicles is made possible in part by McGraw-Hill, publishers of Byte Magazine 01:16.360 --> 01:19.680 and Bix, the Byte Information Exchange. 01:19.680 --> 01:25.560 In print and online, Byte and Bix serve computer professionals worldwide with detailed information 01:25.560 --> 01:28.080 on new hardware, software and technologies. 01:28.080 --> 01:31.080 Welcome to the Computer Chronicles. 01:31.080 --> 01:37.000 I'm Stuart Shaffer and this is Gary Kilgore. 01:37.000 --> 01:40.880 Gary, this is an optical worm drive and with something called a handler, you can get a 01:40.880 --> 01:42.920 gigabyte of storage in your computer. 01:42.920 --> 01:46.280 These are 3D glasses used with a very high-powered CAD program. 01:46.280 --> 01:50.080 What's interesting about both these peripherals, they're not for a Mac 2 or a 386 PC, they're 01:50.080 --> 01:51.080 for the Commodore Amiga. 01:51.080 --> 01:55.520 Gary, I get a lot of letters from viewers complaining about the fact that the computer 01:55.520 --> 01:57.880 press seems to ignore the Amiga. 01:57.880 --> 01:58.880 Why is that? 01:58.880 --> 02:02.160 Well Stuart, I guess part of it's got to be the genealogy of these machines, both Atari 02:02.160 --> 02:04.040 and Commodore with the Amiga, of course. 02:04.040 --> 02:09.480 A lot of them are game machines and over the years the power of these machines has increased 02:09.480 --> 02:10.480 tremendously. 02:10.480 --> 02:12.960 And, of course, they still maintain a fairly low price. 02:12.960 --> 02:15.280 Now that low price has been sort of a negative in a sense. 02:15.280 --> 02:18.640 Yeah, they're really getting all the computing power they really need. 02:18.640 --> 02:23.080 But there have been some especially good niche markets these machines are applicable to. 02:23.080 --> 02:24.080 For example, video. 02:24.080 --> 02:26.000 The Amiga handles video very, very well. 02:26.000 --> 02:31.080 And, of course, the other factor is the marketing power of IBM and Apple in the United States. 02:31.080 --> 02:34.520 And machines like this tend to have more success than outside the United States. 02:34.520 --> 02:39.560 Gary, we're going to take a look at the latest Amiga hardware, the 2000HD and the 2500. 02:39.560 --> 02:42.200 We'll see new Amiga applications from games to multitasking. 02:42.200 --> 02:46.240 And, of course, we'll take a look at graphics, music and video on the Amiga. 02:46.240 --> 02:50.360 Many people buy an Amiga because of its graphics or video capability, but they soon discover 02:50.360 --> 02:51.780 the rest of its power. 02:51.780 --> 02:55.680 That was the case with some scientists at Stanford's Linear Accelerator. 02:55.680 --> 03:00.340 We have a report from Palo Alto, California. 03:00.340 --> 03:06.160 About 30 miles south of San Francisco is the Stanford Linear Accelerator, a two-mile-long 03:06.160 --> 03:12.080 shaft buried deep underground where high-energy particles are propelled at almost the speed 03:12.080 --> 03:13.360 of light. 03:13.360 --> 03:19.240 The particles collide in large detectors where the resulting explosion creates several million 03:19.240 --> 03:20.240 events. 03:20.240 --> 03:25.920 To sift through that mass of data and extract the useful information requires staggering 03:25.920 --> 03:31.800 computing power as databases containing that information will soon approach a trillion 03:31.800 --> 03:33.560 bytes in size. 03:33.560 --> 03:39.000 Recently, theorists and researchers at the center added Amigas to their number-crunching 03:39.000 --> 03:44.360 mainframes, principally as graphics terminals and for multitasking. 03:44.360 --> 03:48.720 The Amiga was unique in that it was a multitasking machine. 03:48.720 --> 03:53.680 And we realized that early that that could create an environment where you would always 03:53.680 --> 04:00.040 be on the mainframe if you wish to be, sharing the mainframe, and still have a machine which 04:00.040 --> 04:04.320 acted not as something independent but rather as a symbiote off the mainframe. 04:04.320 --> 04:10.160 Dr. Weinstein uses his Amiga to juggle up to four different programs running on either 04:10.160 --> 04:13.360 the mainframe, the Amiga, or both. 04:13.360 --> 04:18.700 He can take advantage of the Amiga's color graphics and the mainframe's calculating powers 04:18.700 --> 04:20.880 simultaneously. 04:20.880 --> 04:27.440 A locally written terminal program is compatible with the REX language operating on the mainframe, 04:27.440 --> 04:33.620 so documents can be transferred seamlessly from mainframe to Amiga and back. 04:33.620 --> 04:39.720 For Dr. Weinstein, it's a way to bridge the best of two inherently different worlds. 04:39.720 --> 04:43.960 One is always going to be living with a mainframe, so what I want is something that will symbiote 04:43.960 --> 04:49.040 off that mainframe, will make my life as pleasant as it is to work on a microcomputer, but allow 04:49.040 --> 05:03.520 me to use that when I'm on the mainframe, too. 05:03.520 --> 05:05.400 Joining us in the studio now is Tom Stearns. 05:05.400 --> 05:08.480 Tom is district sales manager with Commodore out here. 05:08.480 --> 05:11.800 And next to Tom is Lou Wallace, contributing editor of Amiga World magazine. 05:11.800 --> 05:12.800 Gary? 05:12.800 --> 05:14.720 Lou, you're a fan of the Amiga system. 05:14.720 --> 05:19.160 Why do you like the Amiga better than, say, an IBM PC or a Mac or something like that? 05:19.160 --> 05:23.520 Well, I guess I could just say it's more fun, and it is that. 05:23.520 --> 05:26.200 But it's also more productive. 05:26.200 --> 05:30.680 It enables me to do things that I simply can't do with other computers. 05:30.680 --> 05:31.680 Like what? 05:31.680 --> 05:36.360 Whether it's running more than one application at a time, or whether it's playing a game, 05:36.360 --> 05:41.120 or whether it's doing both of those at the same time, or video applications, there simply 05:41.120 --> 05:47.160 isn't another computer available on the market that can do the range of tasks and functions 05:47.160 --> 05:48.160 you think it's capable of. 05:48.160 --> 05:50.160 Lou, what is it, what do we have here? 05:50.160 --> 05:51.360 What kind of configuration is this? 05:51.360 --> 05:53.000 Let's give us an idea of what's inside the box. 05:53.000 --> 05:56.360 Well, this is the Amiga 2000HD. 05:56.360 --> 05:58.440 This particular model is a three megabyte machine. 05:58.440 --> 06:02.200 It has a 40 megabyte hard drive auto boot system. 06:02.200 --> 06:09.800 It has a graphic resolution of 320, 200 to 640, 400, 4,000 color speech multitasking. 06:09.800 --> 06:11.240 And the processor is what? 06:11.240 --> 06:15.080 That's Motorola 68000, running at approximately 8 megahertz. 06:15.080 --> 06:16.080 Right. 06:16.080 --> 06:17.080 Good. 06:17.080 --> 06:20.200 Tom, now you've got a game that demonstrates the graphics, right, in the Amiga. 06:20.200 --> 06:22.480 Yeah, I have a couple of games today. 06:22.480 --> 06:26.560 Both games are very different and show off the machine to its best degree. 06:26.560 --> 06:32.680 The first game is called Menace, and it's a true arcade quality style game. 06:32.680 --> 06:35.320 It's a lot of fun. 06:35.320 --> 06:37.320 I understand Lou's a pretty hot Menace player. 06:37.320 --> 06:42.320 I'm going to ask you to describe it, but turn the mouse and the pad over to Lou. 06:42.320 --> 06:43.320 Now I'm on the spot. 06:43.320 --> 06:44.320 You're on the spot now. 06:44.320 --> 06:45.320 Here you go. 06:45.320 --> 06:49.120 Okay, if you can get it going, and maybe give us play by play, Tom, as Lou starts to play, 06:49.120 --> 06:50.280 tell us what's going on here. 06:50.280 --> 06:54.040 Okay, the object of this game is to capture the planet Draconia. 06:54.040 --> 06:55.040 Okay. 06:55.040 --> 07:00.840 As you can see, it's done in full overscan, which means that the entire screen is being 07:00.840 --> 07:02.840 utilized for this particular game. 07:02.840 --> 07:05.840 Okay, are you playing, Lou, or what? 07:05.840 --> 07:06.840 I'm waiting to attack. 07:06.840 --> 07:07.840 Here we go. 07:07.840 --> 07:08.840 Okay, so where are we? 07:08.840 --> 07:13.120 So you try to stay alive through the entire game. 07:13.120 --> 07:15.320 It's got great sound. 07:15.320 --> 07:16.320 Is this underwater, Lou? 07:16.320 --> 07:17.320 Is that what's going on? 07:17.320 --> 07:20.320 Yes, this is the undersea attack. 07:20.320 --> 07:23.400 So just this portion of the game is underwater. 07:23.400 --> 07:24.400 Others take you elsewhere on the planet? 07:24.400 --> 07:31.400 There are six different levels, each one, I think, better and better graphics and interesting 07:31.400 --> 07:32.400 creatures. 07:32.400 --> 07:36.400 Lou, Tom, you were about to talk about why this is a good example of great graphics. 07:36.400 --> 07:37.400 What's going on here? 07:37.400 --> 07:38.400 You mentioned the full scan, the overscan. 07:38.400 --> 07:40.240 Right, it's got full overscan. 07:40.240 --> 07:44.400 It's got great scrolling technique, terrific colors, great animation. 07:44.400 --> 07:46.880 It's really multi-layer scrolling going on here. 07:46.880 --> 07:47.880 Absolutely, yes. 07:47.880 --> 07:52.640 How do these Amiga games compare with the arcade games? 07:52.640 --> 07:54.800 Most of the Amiga games have been ported over from the arcade. 07:54.800 --> 07:55.800 Those are a community. 07:55.800 --> 07:59.000 Lou, actually, you were mentioning you think some of the Amiga games are actually better 07:59.000 --> 08:00.000 than the arcade games. 08:00.000 --> 08:05.120 I think some of the later ones really surpass even the most contemporary of coin-off games. 08:05.120 --> 08:06.120 These graphics are pretty hot. 08:06.120 --> 08:07.120 That's for sure. 08:07.120 --> 08:08.120 You lock? 08:08.120 --> 08:09.120 Watch out. 08:09.120 --> 08:10.120 What's this? 08:10.120 --> 08:11.120 The enemy multiplies. 08:11.120 --> 08:12.120 Lou, you're hot. 08:12.120 --> 08:13.120 You should see me with a rapid-fire joystick. 08:13.120 --> 08:14.120 I know you could play this game for a long time and still not get it. 08:14.120 --> 08:15.120 I'm going to try to get it. 08:15.120 --> 08:16.120 I'm going to try to get it. 08:16.120 --> 08:17.120 I'm going to try to get it. 08:17.120 --> 08:18.120 I'm going to try to get it. 08:18.120 --> 08:19.120 I'm going to try to get it. 08:19.120 --> 08:20.120 I'm going to try to get it. 08:20.120 --> 08:22.960 I know you could play this game for a long time, Lou. 08:22.960 --> 08:24.320 How far have you gotten in this thing? 08:24.320 --> 08:28.080 I've actually made it to the last level, attacking the last master alien. 08:28.080 --> 08:32.560 I've never gotten the last creature yet, but maybe tonight. 08:32.560 --> 08:34.720 It's a good thing your name isn't Dennis, I'll tell you that. 08:34.720 --> 08:38.480 Tom, I'm going to ask you to dump out a menace and get Battle Chess up, okay? 08:38.480 --> 08:39.480 Great. 08:39.480 --> 08:41.400 And while you're doing that, tell us about Battle Chess, Lou. 08:41.400 --> 08:42.400 What kind of game is that? 08:42.400 --> 08:48.480 Well, Battle Chess is your typical chess game. 08:48.480 --> 08:52.440 You play chess against a computer or against another opponent. 08:52.440 --> 08:56.720 The difference with Battle Chess from more conventional computer chess games is that 08:56.720 --> 09:04.040 the game is in three dimensions, a three-dimensional board with animated chessmen. 09:04.040 --> 09:07.400 And they walk, they have sound effects. 09:07.400 --> 09:12.280 Each one attacks, it captures the other piece in a very characteristic and humorous manner. 09:12.280 --> 09:15.960 All right, Tom, we have Battle Chess up on the Amiga now. 09:15.960 --> 09:16.960 Show us how this works. 09:16.960 --> 09:22.760 Okay, we're going to have this rook overtake, excuse me, this knight overtake the blue knight. 09:22.760 --> 09:24.560 Okay, so the red knight's going to take the blue knight. 09:24.560 --> 09:25.560 Correct. 09:25.560 --> 09:26.560 This would be a normal chess move, right? 09:26.560 --> 09:27.560 It's a knight move capturing a knight. 09:27.560 --> 09:29.360 Yes, it is. 09:29.360 --> 09:30.360 Great graphics, great sound. 09:30.360 --> 09:35.600 Okay, but in this game, they actually beat each other up. 09:35.600 --> 09:40.000 The final outcome is preordained, just like in normal chess, but you get to watch a little 09:40.000 --> 09:41.000 humor. 09:41.000 --> 09:42.520 Some of them are very creative. 09:42.520 --> 09:44.120 This is right out of Monty Python. 09:44.120 --> 09:47.320 He chops his arms off and his legs off. 09:47.320 --> 09:48.320 Ouch. 09:48.320 --> 09:53.440 Lou, does this have value, you think, to encourage kids to play chess because of the graphics? 09:53.440 --> 09:54.440 It certainly does. 09:54.440 --> 09:58.560 I mean, I've caught my children with books on the rules of chess, learning how to play 09:58.560 --> 10:00.160 just so they can play Battle Chess. 10:00.160 --> 10:02.720 All right, what happens next, Tom? 10:02.720 --> 10:06.000 We have to wait until they finish their little move. 10:06.000 --> 10:07.400 Okay, so waiting for the knight to die? 10:07.400 --> 10:08.400 One more leg. 10:08.400 --> 10:09.400 There it went. 10:09.400 --> 10:10.400 Okay, blue knight is gone. 10:10.400 --> 10:14.400 Then he disappears. 10:14.400 --> 10:19.400 Okay, so the knight's gone. 10:19.400 --> 10:21.400 Now you're going to do a blue move. 10:21.400 --> 10:22.400 Right. 10:22.400 --> 10:26.200 Okay, so you actually hit a pawn walk into the next square. 10:26.200 --> 10:31.200 Then we're going to take the rook over to the queen. 10:31.200 --> 10:35.400 Okay, so what, red rook is going to take blue queen? 10:35.400 --> 10:36.400 Correct. 10:36.400 --> 10:37.400 Okay. 10:37.400 --> 10:41.200 It has to access the disc to find that graphic. 10:41.200 --> 10:42.200 Is that what's going on? 10:42.200 --> 10:43.200 Right, we don't have this on our installed. 10:43.200 --> 10:44.200 Okay. 10:44.200 --> 10:47.000 Lou, you were mentioning, this is something like what was in the original Star Wars movie, 10:47.000 --> 10:48.000 right? 10:48.000 --> 10:49.000 That's right. 10:49.000 --> 10:54.680 Remember, the Wookiee and the droid were playing, and the creatures would actually fight on 10:54.680 --> 10:55.680 the chessboard. 10:55.680 --> 10:56.680 Okay. 10:56.680 --> 10:57.680 King Kong. 10:57.680 --> 10:58.680 This is the best part. 10:58.680 --> 11:07.680 It's pretty mean. 11:07.680 --> 11:16.680 Poor queen. 11:16.680 --> 11:24.680 Oh, gosh. 11:24.680 --> 11:25.680 Nice twist of the game. 11:25.680 --> 11:26.680 Nice twist of the game. 11:26.680 --> 11:29.080 I mean, chess used to be a nice intellectual game, guys. 11:29.080 --> 11:30.080 What have you done? 11:30.080 --> 11:31.080 A new level of class. 11:31.080 --> 11:33.480 All right, thanks for showing this. 11:33.480 --> 11:36.160 Lou, I want to ask you about the graphics on the game. 11:36.160 --> 11:39.000 These are just games, and they're not important, but what does it show us about what the Amiga 11:39.000 --> 11:40.000 can do? 11:40.000 --> 11:43.880 Well, games have always taken more computer power than just about any other application. 11:43.880 --> 11:48.040 And the same power that's channeled for games and graphics can be used in more productive 11:48.040 --> 11:53.000 applications such as business productivity software and multitasking, which all Amigas 11:53.000 --> 11:54.000 can do. 11:54.000 --> 11:55.000 Right, and they've done that quite a number of years. 11:55.000 --> 12:00.280 From day one, back to the only computer that has multitasking built in in the operating 12:00.280 --> 12:01.600 system from the base up. 12:01.600 --> 12:04.600 Now, you have some examples that show off the multitasking. 12:04.600 --> 12:05.600 Yes, I do. 12:05.600 --> 12:10.000 I'm going to show a quick little scenario here of what I consider a real-world application. 12:10.000 --> 12:14.280 Traditionally, I always start up a virus program to check to watch for viruses in Trojan horses 12:14.280 --> 12:16.680 because you never know when you're going to pick up one. 12:16.680 --> 12:21.880 Then I'm going to load up a partially completed document into just a standard word processor. 12:21.880 --> 12:25.840 But what I want to do is take some data from a spreadsheet, which I did not previously 12:25.840 --> 12:29.480 prepare and incorporate that into the word processor. 12:29.480 --> 12:32.560 So I've got my document, I just push it to the background and you can see that the word 12:32.560 --> 12:35.800 processor is still there and waiting to do whatever I want. 12:35.800 --> 12:36.800 And I'll load up the spreadsheet. 12:36.800 --> 12:40.000 So the point is you're really going to run both programs at the same time. 12:40.000 --> 12:41.000 They're both running. 12:41.000 --> 12:44.560 I could be spell checking or printing or I could have a terminal program running. 12:44.560 --> 12:45.560 So now you're in the spreadsheet. 12:45.560 --> 12:46.560 Absolutely. 12:46.560 --> 12:49.920 These are both active applications right now. 12:49.920 --> 12:56.160 I'm loading up a prepared template, which is a sales history of the Acme Fruit Company. 12:56.160 --> 12:59.600 And using the Amiga clipboard device, I'm going to transport data directly from the 12:59.600 --> 13:04.720 spreadsheet into the word processor by highlighting the area that I want. 13:04.720 --> 13:11.600 And I'll just pop back into the word processor, position my cursor and paste it in. 13:11.600 --> 13:13.840 There you see the data is now part of the document. 13:13.840 --> 13:19.080 But to go a little further, I'm going to incorporate some graphics as well and go to yet another 13:19.080 --> 13:20.080 program. 13:20.080 --> 13:22.040 So you're up to the fourth thing you're running at the same time? 13:22.040 --> 13:25.920 There's actually more tasks than that running because there's DOS and Workbench itself. 13:25.920 --> 13:30.920 So here I'm generating a three-dimensional pie graph of that same data. 13:30.920 --> 13:34.560 Push that to the background, bring up the window. 13:34.560 --> 13:37.920 And now this is a little program I wrote that just grabs all the screens and memory and 13:37.920 --> 13:40.000 saves them off to a RAM disk. 13:40.000 --> 13:41.000 I've already done that. 13:41.000 --> 13:42.000 Now it's done. 13:42.000 --> 13:43.000 It saved the screen. 13:43.000 --> 13:46.040 I don't really need the spreadsheet any longer. 13:46.040 --> 13:50.160 I'll load up a little paint program, which is Deluxe Paint 2, the standard that most 13:50.160 --> 13:52.560 paint programs are compared against on the Amiga. 13:52.560 --> 13:58.240 And I'm going to load up that program, the pie chart that I just generated. 13:58.240 --> 14:00.440 And there it is. 14:00.440 --> 14:06.040 Now all I'm going to do is just clean it up a little bit before I put it in my document. 14:06.040 --> 14:15.040 Clear the screen, position it, and save it back. 14:15.040 --> 14:19.080 All right. 14:19.080 --> 14:20.080 Through with that program. 14:20.080 --> 14:24.560 Let's go back to our word processor. 14:24.560 --> 14:28.280 Select Insert, which allows me to insert graphics into the document. 14:28.280 --> 14:30.080 Change to the appropriate drive. 14:30.080 --> 14:35.040 Click on the graphic, and it will be loaded into the memory of the word processor. 14:35.040 --> 14:36.960 And here you see I now have a graph. 14:36.960 --> 14:39.640 I have spreadsheet data, and I have word processor. 14:39.640 --> 14:42.440 They all were active, and I was extremely productive. 14:42.440 --> 14:44.000 I did not have to stop what I was doing. 14:44.000 --> 14:48.520 I was able to work in a more human stream of consciousness, getting the work done the 14:48.520 --> 14:49.520 way my mind was working. 14:49.520 --> 14:50.960 And the Amiga allows you to do that. 14:50.960 --> 14:52.160 That was a great demo, Lou. 14:52.160 --> 14:53.160 Tom, thank you very much. 14:53.160 --> 14:56.360 In just a minute, we're going to take a look at Deluxe Paint 3 for the Amiga. 14:56.360 --> 14:58.760 We'll also take a look at Video Effects 3D. 14:58.760 --> 15:01.840 First of all, though, if we're talking about the Amiga, we have to talk about its music 15:01.840 --> 15:02.840 capability. 15:02.840 --> 15:05.920 And Wendy Woods has a report on that. 15:05.920 --> 15:14.640 E, also known as Eric Myers, and Mike Kingsley are in a band called Me. 15:14.640 --> 15:21.280 They do their composing in E's converted garage on a variety of electronic musical instruments, 15:21.280 --> 15:25.680 all controlled via a MIDI interface by an Amiga. 15:25.680 --> 15:27.080 Why an Amiga? 15:27.080 --> 15:28.800 It's reasonably priced. 15:28.800 --> 15:32.080 The software currently available fits their needs. 15:32.080 --> 15:37.400 And the custom sound and graphics of the Commodore machine, they say, set it apart from the rest. 15:37.400 --> 15:40.240 As computers in the past, they're blind and they can't hear. 15:40.240 --> 15:45.660 This computer, I believe, is the first human-like computer in that it can see and it can hear 15:45.660 --> 15:50.520 and that it can take in a sample of sound, it can take and digitize a picture. 15:50.520 --> 15:53.440 And what that's going to be great for is it's going to be great for art, it's going to be 15:53.440 --> 15:55.720 great for being able to express yourself. 15:55.720 --> 16:00.280 The software used to create this music is called Texture from SoundQuest. 16:00.280 --> 16:06.480 The program enables them to store 24 tracks on disk, digitally record and control sounds 16:06.480 --> 16:11.800 made by the keyboards and sampler, and to play them back from the computer. 16:11.800 --> 16:17.120 In performance, they use a program called Performance, which supports any MIDI file 16:17.120 --> 16:23.160 format, plays their pieces in a sequence they choose, even allows them to remix sounds for 16:23.160 --> 16:25.200 a live performance. 16:25.200 --> 16:31.520 E and Mike see all this as part of a big experiment designed to test the limits of the Amiga and 16:31.520 --> 16:33.400 their imaginations. 16:33.400 --> 16:38.320 In Saratoga, California, for the Computer Chronicles, I'm Wendy Woods. 16:38.320 --> 16:52.760 With us in the studio now is Dan Silva. 16:52.760 --> 16:56.800 Dan is the author of Deluxe Paint 3 and next to Dan is Jim Schneider, president of InnoVision 16:56.800 --> 16:57.800 Technology. 16:57.800 --> 17:01.840 Jim, on the last segment, there was a machine here that said Amiga 2000, this one says Amiga 17:01.840 --> 17:02.840 2500. 17:02.840 --> 17:03.840 What's the difference between those two? 17:03.840 --> 17:05.280 Right, this has just been updated. 17:05.280 --> 17:08.200 This is a brand new version of the Amiga 2000 series. 17:08.200 --> 17:10.560 It's called the Amiga 2500. 17:10.560 --> 17:16.920 And this has a 14 megahertz processor, 68,000 processor, and it also contains a 40 megabyte 17:16.920 --> 17:18.640 internal hard drive. 17:18.640 --> 17:23.840 The machine's advantages over the predecessors are that it runs at a three to four times 17:23.840 --> 17:28.960 faster clock rate, so you get performance in your packages magnified by that amount. 17:28.960 --> 17:33.160 And what would you expect to pay for a package like this as retail price? 17:33.160 --> 17:38.880 This advanced model with the accelerator would cost about $4,000 for the monitor and the 17:38.880 --> 17:40.400 basic Amiga 2500 system. 17:40.400 --> 17:44.960 And can you compare it in, let's say, computing power with the Mac product line, for example? 17:44.960 --> 17:48.480 Yes, with the Macintosh, Macintosh 2 specifically. 17:48.480 --> 17:52.480 This would gain a slight performance advantage in general processing. 17:52.480 --> 17:55.600 In addition, the graphics co-processor built into all Amigas would give it the advantage 17:55.600 --> 17:56.600 in graphics. 17:56.600 --> 17:59.840 All right, Dan, speaking of graphics, you're the author of Deluxe Paint, and you've got 17:59.840 --> 18:02.600 Deluxe Paint 3 coming out in just a couple of weeks, I guess. 18:02.600 --> 18:04.560 What are the new improvements in Deluxe Paint 3? 18:04.560 --> 18:08.680 Well, almost every aspect of the program has been enhanced. 18:08.680 --> 18:11.840 We've got the ability to paint and overscan, which gets rid of the black border around 18:11.840 --> 18:12.840 the picture. 18:12.840 --> 18:14.160 You use extra half-bright mode. 18:14.160 --> 18:17.600 It's an Amiga mode that gives you 32 additional darker colors. 18:17.600 --> 18:22.160 And there's a new font requester, which lets you load color fonts and reassign the font 18:22.160 --> 18:24.240 directory. 18:24.240 --> 18:27.520 There's new fill and paint modes, but the most important feature, and I think the one 18:27.520 --> 18:32.040 I'm going to demonstrate today, is the animation capability. 18:32.040 --> 18:35.560 This I'm going to play an animation that was created entirely in Deluxe Paint. 18:35.560 --> 18:41.120 As you can see, I can create three-dimensional transformations, moving any bitmap object 18:41.120 --> 18:44.320 through three dimensions. 18:44.320 --> 18:49.520 And I'm going to show you interactively how you can actually create animations. 18:49.520 --> 18:54.040 This is still a paint program, and I can paint in every frame, jump to the next frame, and 18:54.040 --> 18:56.000 paint in that. 18:56.000 --> 18:58.240 By doing this, I can create an animation. 18:58.240 --> 18:59.400 I'll play that back. 18:59.400 --> 19:02.960 You'll see I've actually created a moving object there. 19:02.960 --> 19:06.760 In addition, all the normal painting tools can be used to create animations. 19:06.760 --> 19:12.400 If I click this tool, instead of just painting on one screen, I can hold down and key on 19:12.400 --> 19:18.320 the keyboard and paint on separate screens, creating an animation. 19:18.320 --> 19:22.880 I can then reduce the size of the brush interactively and have it fade off in the distance. 19:22.880 --> 19:25.720 And just by hand, I've created an animation. 19:25.720 --> 19:29.000 What does each picture take in terms of storage? 19:29.000 --> 19:30.440 I'm not storing the entire picture. 19:30.440 --> 19:34.760 I'm only storing the differences between the pictures so you can get much more use out 19:34.760 --> 19:35.760 of your memory. 19:35.760 --> 19:38.600 Do you have the ability to change light sources and so forth? 19:38.600 --> 19:41.240 No, this is just a painting program. 19:41.240 --> 19:43.280 There is real no three-dimensional modeling. 19:43.280 --> 19:46.000 I'm moving bitmaps around. 19:46.000 --> 19:50.160 I also have the ability to create anim brushes. 19:50.160 --> 19:53.760 Here's what I call an anim brush that was painted in this program and then picked up 19:53.760 --> 19:57.560 off the screen, cutting through all the pictures. 19:57.560 --> 20:02.880 I can now paint it down on one frame, or if I hold down the animation key, I can fly it 20:02.880 --> 20:04.880 through separate frames. 20:04.880 --> 20:11.320 I'll fly him off the screen here. 20:11.320 --> 20:16.040 Now if we play that animation, we've got a bird flying. 20:16.040 --> 20:19.400 I can also do a three-dimensional move of that to demonstrate the three-dimensional 20:19.400 --> 20:21.400 capability. 20:21.400 --> 20:27.160 I'm going to tell this to start 600 frames away. 20:27.160 --> 20:31.320 I can do a preview of this, see the rectangle coming up. 20:31.320 --> 20:32.480 I can tell it to render it. 20:32.480 --> 20:35.400 I have a bird flying out of the distance, getting closer. 20:35.400 --> 20:39.320 I can now tell him to keep flying. 20:39.320 --> 20:42.840 He passed me there. 20:42.840 --> 20:44.560 Now we've got a bird doing a flyby. 20:44.560 --> 20:47.040 Here he comes and zooms by. 20:47.040 --> 20:51.600 These anim brushes can be used to do anything that a normal brush can be used for. 20:51.600 --> 20:52.760 You're doing this in real time now, right? 20:52.760 --> 20:54.600 This is all real time. 20:54.600 --> 21:00.500 Just as I can use a normal brush to paint with, I can paint with an anim brush. 21:00.500 --> 21:03.360 This turns out to be an unexpected useful feature. 21:03.360 --> 21:07.360 You can create anim brushes, which for instance are a bunch of different leaves on trees, 21:07.360 --> 21:11.160 and paint trees without them looking repetitive. 21:11.160 --> 21:15.320 So what we've got is a program that's both a full-featured paint program and an animation 21:15.320 --> 21:16.320 program rolled into one. 21:16.320 --> 21:17.320 Dan, that's great. 21:17.320 --> 21:20.360 I want to ask you to slide the keyboard over to Jim there so we can get the video effects 21:20.360 --> 21:21.360 3D up. 21:21.360 --> 21:22.640 Let me ask you while he's getting ready, Dan. 21:22.640 --> 21:25.000 At what level is this kind of paint program being used? 21:25.000 --> 21:26.720 I mean, is this professional level graphics being created? 21:26.720 --> 21:30.600 It's being used both by professionals and by five-year-olds. 21:30.600 --> 21:35.040 It's probably the most popular paint program on Amiga, and I found everyone uses it. 21:35.040 --> 21:36.600 All right, Jim, what do you have? 21:36.600 --> 21:39.800 I have a product called Video Effects 3D for the Amiga. 21:39.800 --> 21:42.880 This is designed primarily for the video graphics industry. 21:42.880 --> 21:47.160 This is a professional level product that allows the creation of animation sequences 21:47.160 --> 21:48.640 for titles and logos. 21:48.640 --> 21:51.280 A lot of times you see these kind of animations on TV. 21:51.280 --> 21:56.200 I have a demo here of several sequences that were created with Deluxe Paint, as a matter 21:56.200 --> 21:57.200 of fact. 21:57.200 --> 22:01.560 These titles were loaded in, and these three-dimensional special effects were created. 22:01.560 --> 22:04.440 We have the ability to do multiple object motion. 22:04.440 --> 22:07.600 You're seeing playback at real-time speeds from computer memory. 22:07.600 --> 22:10.820 Here you're going to see a page shatter, very easy to do. 22:10.820 --> 22:14.620 This is an effect that normally $100,000 machines can do. 22:14.620 --> 22:16.960 Right here, the Amiga word, notice it's flat. 22:16.960 --> 22:20.820 We're going to turn that into a 3D-extruded logo right here just by pressing one button. 22:20.820 --> 22:24.600 That extrudes it into a light-shaded three-dimensional object. 22:24.600 --> 22:27.280 Tim, is this used for broadcast work? 22:27.280 --> 22:31.640 Yes, it has been used in a number of programs, national campaigns, and even TV commercials. 22:31.640 --> 22:33.240 All right, what's next? 22:33.240 --> 22:40.280 Okay, basically the logos here, or the menus here, are actually explained here on the screen. 22:40.280 --> 22:43.400 One unique feature of the user interface is that if you have a question about a particular 22:43.400 --> 22:46.000 function, you just place your cursor over the button, it gives you an explanation. 22:46.000 --> 22:48.760 It's very easy to start off with. 22:48.760 --> 22:50.560 The next product I'd like to show is Broadcast Titler. 22:50.560 --> 22:56.080 You've got to load that up now, and what does Broadcast Titler do while you're loading there? 22:56.080 --> 23:00.320 Right, Broadcast Titler is a professional-level character generation program. 23:00.320 --> 23:09.400 The titles that you normally see on television are generated by expensive equipment that 23:09.400 --> 23:12.280 bring on titles with different effects in high resolution. 23:12.280 --> 23:15.760 This package here does the same thing on a very affordable Amiga system. 23:15.760 --> 23:21.400 We have the ability to display multiple colors, up to 320 colors on a page, with extraordinary 23:21.400 --> 23:25.000 high-resolution graphic characters. 23:25.000 --> 23:28.320 We have the ability to do transitions with each page of text. 23:28.320 --> 23:30.400 We have up to 1,000 pages of storage. 23:30.400 --> 23:32.280 I'll show you an example here. 23:32.280 --> 23:35.920 Here's an example title page that was created with the package. 23:35.920 --> 23:39.000 These are all standard fonts available on the Amiga system. 23:39.000 --> 23:44.400 I can play some of the effects that the program can do, slides from different directions, 23:44.400 --> 23:46.760 up to 9 speeds for all the effects. 23:46.760 --> 23:52.120 The graphics you're seeing here would normally be overlaid over video using a Genlock device, 23:52.120 --> 23:55.520 and this is as well a very high-resolution package. 23:55.520 --> 23:56.920 Alright, Jim, that's very impressive. 23:56.920 --> 23:59.040 Now you said this is being used at the professional level. 23:59.040 --> 24:01.240 Is this being used by TV networks now, for example? 24:01.240 --> 24:02.240 Yes, it is. 24:02.240 --> 24:07.240 The actual Video Effects 3D and Broadcast Titler have been used for professional commercials, 24:07.240 --> 24:08.240 national campaigns. 24:08.240 --> 24:11.800 It was even used in the Super Bowl for the Jumbo-Tron scoreboard. 24:11.800 --> 24:13.480 And what's the cost of your package? 24:13.480 --> 24:18.840 Our Video Effects 3D is $199.95, and the Broadcast Titler is $299.95. 24:18.840 --> 24:21.600 This is going to revolutionize the TV production business, I guess. 24:21.600 --> 24:23.200 Jim, Dan, thank you very much. 24:23.200 --> 24:24.200 That's our look at the new Amigas. 24:24.200 --> 24:39.960 We'll be back with this week's computer news in just a moment. 24:39.960 --> 24:44.920 In the Random Access file this week, an underground group with contacts inside Apple has been 24:44.920 --> 24:48.160 distributing the source code for the Apple Macintosh. 24:48.160 --> 24:52.760 The group, calling itself Software Artists for Information Dissemination, has mailed 24:52.760 --> 24:57.680 out floppy disks containing portions of the Mac code to several industry insiders. 24:57.680 --> 25:03.460 The group says its aim is to spread the genius of Apple developers uninhibited by legalities. 25:03.460 --> 25:07.400 The group says it will distribute the complete source code to the Mac filing system, as well 25:07.400 --> 25:11.080 as the codes for the computer's memory and systems software. 25:11.080 --> 25:13.960 Apple has never licensed its source code to anyone. 25:13.960 --> 25:18.040 Clone makers or individual hackers could use the source code to clone their own low-cost 25:18.040 --> 25:19.040 Macs. 25:19.040 --> 25:23.760 Apple says it is investigating and will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. 25:23.760 --> 25:28.120 Lotus has announced that it has added fax capability to its Lotus Express communications 25:28.120 --> 25:29.120 program. 25:29.120 --> 25:33.920 That means you can send a fax using Lotus Express without having a fax board. 25:33.920 --> 25:37.260 Express is used primarily to interface with MCI Mail. 25:37.260 --> 25:42.640 And Lotus has announced a deal with NEC to put 123 and Lotus Agenda on a ROM card for 25:42.640 --> 25:45.000 the NEC Ultralight laptop. 25:45.000 --> 25:48.920 Also coming out on ROM card versions are Lotus Agenda and Lotus Express. 25:48.920 --> 25:55.320 Finally, Lotus has announced a rebate program for purchasers of 123, version 2.2 and 3.0, 25:55.320 --> 26:00.680 offering a $100 rebate for buyers who also purchase freelance or manuscript. 26:00.680 --> 26:05.520 IBM has announced a new high-end desktop publishing program called Interleaf Publisher. 26:05.520 --> 26:09.580 It can import files from graphics, CAD and spreadsheet programs. 26:09.580 --> 26:14.640 And IBM says it will actively market Interleaf Publisher to clone users, breaking the old 26:14.640 --> 26:19.920 big blue tradition of selling only into the IBM user community. 26:19.920 --> 26:22.480 How do you find out what kind of software is out there these days? 26:22.480 --> 26:26.440 Well, there is now the computer software version of books in print. 26:26.440 --> 26:29.360 It's called the Bowker Software Encyclopedia. 26:29.360 --> 26:32.860 It lists over 20,000 personal computer software titles. 26:32.860 --> 26:38.000 The volume has more than 2,100 pages and it retails for $180. 26:38.000 --> 26:39.680 You've heard of large type books. 26:39.680 --> 26:42.080 Welcome to large type computer displays. 26:42.080 --> 26:47.160 A new program called iRelief is a word processor that allows you to display the characters 26:47.160 --> 26:51.280 in enlarged sizes, up to nearly three times their normal size. 26:51.280 --> 26:55.680 It's a great program for those with bad eyesight or for anyone struggling with a laptop and 26:55.680 --> 26:57.240 poor lighting conditions. 26:57.240 --> 27:01.160 It's made by a company called Ski Soft Publishing. 27:01.160 --> 27:04.000 Nintendo says it has a new game up its sleeve. 27:04.000 --> 27:09.000 It is looking into turning those millions of Nintendo game machines into home terminals 27:09.000 --> 27:11.200 for use in a new online service. 27:11.200 --> 27:15.320 Nintendo already uses its machines in Japan as data terminals. 27:15.320 --> 27:19.200 21% of U.S. homes now have Nintendo units. 27:19.200 --> 27:24.160 Finally, in the computer snafu of the week category, New York Telephone has just patched 27:24.160 --> 27:29.020 up one of its long distance dialing programs after it discovered that everyone else had 27:29.020 --> 27:34.600 discovered that a few pay phones on the Long Island Expressway would call India, Pakistan, 27:34.600 --> 27:37.360 Italy and Spain without asking for money. 27:37.360 --> 27:41.160 A phone company spokesman said it was a computer programming error. 27:41.160 --> 27:42.600 That's it for this week's Chronicles. 27:42.600 --> 27:44.800 We'll see you next time. 27:44.800 --> 27:50.880 The Computer Chronicles is made possible in part by McGraw-Hill, publishers of Byte Magazine 27:50.880 --> 27:54.200 and Bix, the Byte Information Exchange. 27:54.200 --> 28:00.080 In print and online, Byte and Bix serve computer professionals worldwide with detailed information 28:00.080 --> 28:04.400 on new hardware, software and technologies. 28:04.400 --> 28:11.120 For a transcript of this week's Computer Chronicles, send $4 to PTV Publications, Post Office Box 28:11.120 --> 28:15.840 701, Kent, Ohio 44240. 28:15.840 --> 28:41.280 Please indicate program date.